Posted on 06/25/2004 4:56:17 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
DUBLIN, Ireland -- Thousands of left-wing activists marched through the Irish capital Friday to protest the arrival of President Bush for a brief summit with European Union chiefs.
Rallying under the "Stop Bush Campaign" banner, the crowd of about 10,000 waved signs denouncing Bush as a warmonger and calling for an end to American military flights though Shannon Airport, a strategic refueling point used by thousands of U.S. troops each month.
The protesters marched from north Dublin to the south-side office of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose decision to keep Shannon available for Iraq-bound forces has angered many in this officially neutral nation.
"Good people of America," read one placard, "vote that son of a Bush out."
"If we don't speak out, our silence will be taken as consent," Dublin Mayor Andrew Montague told the crowd. "This president lied to the world about the reasons for invading Iraq."
In an interview with state broadcaster RTE, Ahern said Ireland's open airport policy didn't amount to support for the U.S. war effort. However, he stressed that those opposed to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq should recognize that times were changing, and European Union cooperation with Bush over Iraq was essential.
Ahern, the current president of the 25-nation EU, said the latest U.N. resolution on Iraq called on world body members to "help the coalition forces in Iraq. So whatever the arguments of last year were, those arguments are dead."
But few in the crowd wanted to forget the war in Iraq. Leaders of Green Party handed out copies of a mock set of instructions advising protesters how to make a "citizen's arrest" of Bush if they meet him.
That prospect appeared remote as, 150 miles west on the far coast of Ireland, more than 6,000 police and soldiers set up checkpoints and shut down key roads near the summit site in the biggest security operation ever mounted in Ireland.
The Irish security forces' primary goal was to prevent protesters from breaching perimeter security at Shannon, where Air Force One landed Friday evening, or the nearby Dromoland Castle, a luxury hotel hosting the summit Saturday.
Hundreds of officers from Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, formed a cordon about 100 yards from the airport entrance and blocked about 1,200 protesters.
Riot police were on standby, but the protest was peaceful. Some demonstrators said the police presence was heavy-handed.
An Irish Navy vessel intercepted a boatload of protesters on the Shannon estuary Friday. Among three people arrested was one of Ireland's most prominent peace campaigners, former Irish army officer Ed Horgan, who last year sued the government in a failed bid to make Ahern close Shannon Airport to U.S. military flights.
1/2 Irish and 1/2 German,you'd be too drunk to invade France.
Bier or Guinness. What a dilemma.
Thats was my point. They sat out WW II letting the Americans and British do all the fighting and dying.
Have any of these people ever protested the human rights abuses of mass-murdering and torturing thug dictators like Saddam Hussein? The Left is completely lunatic in its inability to see with a moral perspective that George Bush is in no way comparable to mass murdering dictators.
I wonder if these protestors are the children of the losers who were protesting during the 80s for a nuclear freeze or no deployment of missiles in Europe. They never learn!!!
Funny you should mention that,I'm going to a barbeque tomorrow at a Hanoverian's(German)guy's house.
I'll be bringing Guinness.
Well darlin', this is in your neighborhood. Time to get some drinkin' buddies and get out there and FREEP 'em.
Me too. 50% Irish, 50% German, 100% American. All three places have vocal morons who pretend to speak for the entire nation.
There were a lot of Irish volunteers, though.
There was also a substantial amount of pro-Nazi sentiment in Ireland, though it probably had more to do with having been several centuries of often-savage British occupation than with any liking for the Nazi cause.
My point is that given Irish history it may have been unrealistic to expect them to make common cause with Britain. They at least stayed neutral when they could have gone in on the Nazi side. That was a big plus for the Allies. A belligerent Ireland would have been a nightmare to deal with on top of everything else the Allies were facing.
"All the good Irish people left the place long ago, many in English prison barges, and others with their last dime."
As a descendant of those who came via the "Cromwell Cruise Lines", I say Screw ya, ya leftist Planter bums!
"God gave Ireland whiskey so that it would not rule the world. He gave Ireland Cromwell and the Potato Famine so that America would."
Where is the VP when you need him? Slacker!
LVM
Good point although the did decide to skip NATO along with the Swedes and Swiss.
However they really have no right to tell us what we should do or who to vote for. And I doubt if the Irish Navy is steaming this way to liberate us.
How many of the protesters were non-Irish Eurotrash?
Bier with dinner. Guinness for dessert!
Was planning a trip back to the ancestral homeland in October.
Not anymore.
F--- off Ireland!!!!
""If we don't speak out, our silence will be taken as consent," Dublin Mayor Andrew Montague told the crowd. "This president lied to the world about the reasons for invading Iraq."
Would that be the same silence seen in Muslims around the world in reaction to the beheadings? Or perhaps little Andy's silence about the atrocities committed by Saddam and his congenitally sadistic sons?
Perhaps Andy would like to back up his "lying" accusation with actual quotes.
Do you get the feeling that Andy bought the mayorship of Dublin with a round of pints in a few local pubs, and a promise of more to follow if elected?
Thank God all my relatives are in Galway.....
Remember what Reagan used to say to his cabinet .. if you're not making somebody mad .. you're not doing your job.
Looks like President Bush is doing a great job .. LOL!
F*ck off Ireland?
Nice you think that a handful of protestors represent a populice.
Ye wanna know something?
I don't think I would like someone that small minded coming to my country.
Stay at home. :-)
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